“Harry Potter” Expands Its Wizarding World With New Official Series Podcast

There are seemingly endless ways to celebrate a favorite story.

You can read the books again, rewatch the movies, collect the merchandise, visit the attractions or spend far too long debating exactly which Hogwarts house you belong in.

Yet as fans prepare for another major era of “Harry Potter,” there is one increasingly popular way to experience our favorite stories that is becoming harder to overlook: podcasts.

As first exclusively reported by Variety, HBO Max is transforming “Harry Potter: The Official Film Podcast” into “Harry Potter: The Official Series Podcast,” shifting the show’s focus from looking back at the eight original films toward following HBO’s forthcoming television adaptation.

Beginning Tuesday, Rhianna Dhillon will continue hosting the podcast alongside new co-host Law Sharma. The transition will begin with a rather fitting guest in David Heyman, who served as a producer across the “Harry Potter” films and is now an executive producer on the upcoming television series.

In many ways, Heyman makes the perfect bridge between the two versions of the Wizarding World, and that is essentially what the podcast itself is becoming.

What began earlier this year as a rewatch of the eight “Harry Potter” films is evolving alongside the franchise. Once the television series arrives, Dhillon and Sharma will discuss each new episode, offering reactions and analysis while also speaking with members of the cast and the creatives working behind the scenes.

The companion video podcast will be available following episodes of the HBO series through HBO Max and podcast platforms.

While there is naturally a lot of “Harry Potter” news packed into the announcement, the evolution of the podcast is also part of a much larger entertainment trend.

Podcasts have spent years growing beyond the relatively simple idea of people sitting around microphones and discussing whatever happens to interest them. They have become extensions of television series, movies and entire entertainment brands, giving audiences another place to continue the conversation after the credits stop rolling.

HBO has been particularly active in that space, creating companion podcasts around series including “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” and “The Pitt.” Now one of Warner Bros. Discovery’s biggest franchises is joining that growing lineup.

It makes considerable sense for “Harry Potter.”

This is a franchise built around details, theories, characters, locations and an enormous fictional history that fans have spent decades discussing. A television adaptation already gives the story considerably more time to explore the books than a feature film could, while an official companion podcast creates another layer where the people making that adaptation can discuss how everything came together.

For younger viewers discovering Hogwarts through the new series, it becomes another doorway into the Wizarding World. For longtime fans, it offers the opportunity to hear directly from the actors and creatives responsible for reimagining something they already know incredibly well.

The timing also feels particularly fitting as September begins and fans once again celebrate Back to Hogwarts, the annual celebration built around the fictional September 1 return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

There has been no shortage of “Harry Potter” activity surrounding the occasion, and this year feels particularly significant as the franchise moves closer to its next major television chapter. Rather than simply celebrating everything that came before, Warner Bros. Discovery is increasingly laying the groundwork for what comes next.

“Harry Potter: The Official Series Podcast” is another part of that transition.

The movies gave fans something to watch. The books gave them something to read. For decades, the Wizarding World has given them plenty to talk about.

Now HBO is giving that conversation an official microphone.